TR - Norway Yurt - Wallowa Alpine Huts - East Oregon

[neufox47]

On Sunday, March 18, four friends and I went into the Southern Wallowas for a five day yurt trip. The area had been getting lots of snow in the weeks leading up to the trip, but a few days before we left the rain line went all the way up to 9,000ft. 18 inches of right side up snow came on top of the rain and brought stable avalanche conditions and nice fast mid boot powder to ski.

Here is a topo map of where we were. The mark represents where the yurt is.


Day 1 consists of a 6 mile snowmobile drag in starting at about 2,000ft.


Then a 2,400 ft 2.4 miles skin (our GPS disagrees with the website, that or we got jipped on the snowmo drag) to end up here.


We got acquainted with the yurt, did a practice group rescue (mandated by WAH) and went for a quick afternoon lap in the sunshine. We did the trip DIY, so we only had a guide for the first day and we supplied our own food. The guide portered our food bag, some climbing gear, and extra pair of skis up for $2 a lb. Our only complaints with WAH were that we didn't find out that the porter was one way until that morning (not a big deal for the food, but we had brought small packs with the idea that a duffel would be carried up and down) and the guides were a bit reluctant to give a lot of info about the terrain, especially the steep fun stuff. Once I told him I had over 1,000 TGR posts he realized how core we were and gave us beta on all pretty much whatever we asked for

Seriously though, when you pay $250 for the first day guide, plus another $200 for portering, and tip over 20%, I really didn't expect to have to pry out the info. We were pretty much asking him to point out stuff on the map and ask if their was anything in the way that wasn't shown on a topo map. One guide was cool about it and really helpful, the other kept making the "joke" of "I thought you guys didn't want a guide" or "that info comes with the guided trip".

We made long plans for day 2 as we knew there was snow coming and it may be the only day we could travel into the high open terrain. After a lot of skinning by compass and GPS, the overcast started to break up just in time for the steep climbing part.


Looking at Red Mt. Basin


Karl smiling with Granite Mt. Basin in the background. If you look closely you can see the 737 size cornice that broke off and accompanying debris



Close up


Sky starting to turn Bluebird. Red is on the left. Didn't make it this trip, but definitely want to next time.


Booting up the N aspect Col


Brad going up from the saddle to take a look


View from the top:




Me "I think we should go down over here."
Them "Isn't that the way the guide said not to go?"
"Yeah, that's kinda why I want to go that way"
"How about we do that tomorrow."

"How about we ski that instead"


More views

[::: :::]

couldn't put it in the budget this year, but this trip is in my future!

keep the pics coming!

[benk]

one of the more protective areas I've been too. no one gives out beta on the goods, not even guides

[BigDaddy]

Looks very cool, NF. Been out that way to windsurf many times, but clearly need to go in the winter!

Nice TR and I know you have more pics to post...

[mtnjam]

looks fun...who were your porters?

[josef]

This looks awesome.

[mtnbiker/boarder]

nice work Rob.. looking forward to more pics and write up .. looks like a blast.....MORE PLEASE..........

[neufox47]

We decided that Brad and I would ski The Horn and the rest of the crew would ski the col we came up. For the second run of the day, we would ski the far high lookers right line in this picture


SKIING Finally! - It was a long skin, made longer by the 150' visibility we had all morning




Bradley


The N side

[neufox47]

On to the next run


We planned on going right up to the highest skiable point on the next face, however, the ice and rock that was falling off of the rock faces made that snow, ummm less than ideal. The whole aspect right below the surface was littered with small rocks and chunks of ice. It didn't become apparent until we were right on top of it. So we stayed to the lookers left.

Getting there is half the fun


The sun went below the peak...


N ridge of Granite


The Horn is the col that is mostly obscured on the lookers left peak


The Incredible Hulk - This was our original objective, but we went with the line sans overhead cornices.


The rest of our trip visibility was more like this:


Day three we woke to 6-8 inches of fairly moist wind effected snow. We skied aspects that were windward and were kicking off small storm / wind slabs 8-10 inches deep on anything over 33 degrees. When we went to bed at the end of day three, we expected to wake up to a couple of inches of light snow. Instead we woke up to 12-16" of mank / sierra cement / glue / shit.

Day four was spent balancing between finding slopes that were steep enough to ski the glue that had fallen and not too steep to slide. The glue had fallen on 6-8" of snow from the day before that had formed touchy storm / wind slab. Stability seemed good, but we weren't about to jump into some of the protected 45+ degree stuff that would have been fun. Mid day when we were lamenting that this couldn't get any worse, it did, and started raining. So we went back to the yurt to finish the 5 gallon keg.

Day 5, well it froze overnight and we had a nice breakable crust that was capable of pulling our skis out from under us. We skied and skated out. As the further we went the warmer it got, duh, and the snow down low was not conducive to sliding. The end of the trip consists of a 6 mile 1,800 ft road ski. It took us 90 minutes, we all wished we were on CC skate skis.

In the end I have few regrets. It was an awesome trip. We shared the yurt with four other guys. They were really cool, even though they tele'd One of the guys made taco's one night and shared them with us, that meal will be told of for years to come. Things I would do differently:
Bring a weather radio
Not treat the third day like a rest day because we expected day four to be better
Skied the ridges that were N and S facing rather than going all the way to The Horn. This is marginal, I mean day two was an absolute blast. I'm being nit picky.
Have a group smaller than 5, however, there was no one that I didn't want there. Nothing like a trip with four of your best friends.

The trip was remarkably cheap. All costs except airfare (one rental car, gas for two SUV's going 600 miles each, food, tip, yurt expenses, 5 gallon keg of micro brew etc.) came out to about $600 each.

We all said that we want to go back soon. I would consider an April trip to take advantage of what must be incredible spring skiing. There is so much stuff up there that is unknown. A lot of the lines we wanted to ski were unnamed on the WAH map. On a spring trip with low avalanche danger good and fit skiers could nail big line after big line. Maybe the guides just don't know if people outside of their group has been skied, but they seemed pretty confident that a lot of lines, even those close by the yurt had never been skied. Judging by the stuff that was named, most people go up there to ski 30 degree trees.

If anyone wants to more info feel free to PM me.

[neufox47]

Hmmm, some of these photos are not showing up... Code is there.

[linds-o-rama]

Dude. Wow. Amazing. I have been wanting to go there, and now I REALLY want to go there! Great photos! Those yurts used to be very affordable, but the rates went up a few years back... ouch. Will probably bring my teepee...

[LightRanger]

The Wallowas have been high on my list ever since I first heard of people skiing there. Kind of an off-the-radar range (like the Trinity Alps). Nice TR.

[Platinum Pete]

Buddies and I have been going to Wing Ridge, nearby, annually for the past 10 years - what a phenomenal area. The guy who runs WAH just bought out the Wing Ridge and Big Sheep ops as well. Seems like a good dude. Says he's going to replace the Wing Ridge kitchen tent with a Yurt. Got any pics inside the yurts?

[thin cover]

What an awesome trip and experience, Nice capturing it dude!

[arewolfe]

rock n' roll.

[lynchdogger]

Yeah Rob! Awesome TR and stoke. All that sweetness for $600 clams? Count me in on a future trip. Beautiful terrain. Good times from the looks of things. Thanks for the share.

[biff chalupa]

Nice dude. Made my night. Can't wait to hear about it.

[frecnhy.]

SO SICK dude!

[neufox47]

Dude. Wow. Amazing. I have been wanting to go there, and now I REALLY want to go there! Great photos! Those yurts used to be very affordable, but the rates went up a few years back... ouch. Will probably bring my teepee...

Well, $50 a day for the yurt ain't too bad IMO. It includes all your kitchen items, oils, seasoning, pots, pans, etc. I don't really want to think about doing that skin with 70lbs of gear on my back.

[ex-powderbroker]

wow, awesome TR, Neufox..... Those peaks are stunning!

If anyone wants to go next year........

[BigDaddy]

wow, awesome TR, Neufox..... Those peaks are stunning!

If anyone wants to go next year........

Yes?...

[buckethead]

wow, absolutely spectacular!
and suprisingly inexpensive.
terrific pics.
tonite/tomorrow we'll see just how much snow you brought back in your wake

[MagnificentUnicorn]

So for an extra $200 you get two guides and they will cook and give you all the beta you need. Do you really expect them to just lay it all out for you? You wanted the independence and adventure right? I've been with WAH three times and the guides are well worth the price IMO. It's like touring with a friend in an area you never go to, it's an extra measure of comfort.

[lynchdogger]

wow, awesome TR, Neufox..... Those peaks are stunning!

If anyone wants to go next year........

Absolutely!

[neufox47]

So for an extra $200 you get two guides and they will cook and give you all the beta you need. Do you really expect them to just lay it all out for you? You wanted the independence and adventure right? I've been with WAH three times and the guides are well worth the price IMO. It's like touring with a friend in an area you never go to, it's an extra measure of comfort.

No. Guides would have been an extra $400 each, approximately. The $600 included transportation from Portland, hotel stay, etc.

Yes I expect them to answer the questions I had when we were paying for a day of guide services. I don't think that dodging questions about where rain lines were, PWL's etc is appropriate when we were paying $250 for a days services. On top of that, we paid about $200 for porting via snowmobile and gave over a 20% tip. So I really think that for over $500 paid for one days service I shouldn't have to pull teeth. For the record, one of the guides was extremely helpful, after he saw us ski. I think he was nervous helping us get to some of the terrain we were asking about until he saw that we were competent skiers. The other one (who technically wasn't our guide, he was leaving with the other group but our guide asked him to help) didn't want to tell us anything.

I would definitely consider getting the guide when going back. It just wasn't in the budget for some of the group. Also, we were nervous that like many guide services / cat skiing operations / etc, they will try to take you on 30 degree meadow skipping runs all day. After talking to Victor, I know now that wouldn't be the case. I think that is one important thing for a business like that to take into consideration, sure these guys are only paying for a guide on one out of five days this time, but if we are helpful and friendly, they may pay for the whole boat next time.